I use Nikon bodies and Nikkor lenses. I’m currently using the D810, D800E, D800 series. I like to bring at least three cameras so I don’t have to change lenses and I can count on a backup.

My choice of lenses really depends on the assignment and what I plan on photographing. For instance to photograph wildlife I need longer lenses like the 400mm with an extender or the 80-400mm. When I shoot in low light, which I often do, I prefer 1.4 aperture lenses, the 50mm being one of my favorites. The 24-70mm is my workhorse and I’ll bring a 14-24mm, a couple Speedlights and my Gitzo tripod. And of course the Mac laptop computer and all the cords.

I find it best to travel as light as possible as I hand carry all my equipment on the plane.

I always bring clothes to dress for layers and bring a medical kit because it seems there hasn’t been a trip where I haven’t reached into it for something!

My British mother was a flight attendant for Pan Am so I think I obtained my wanderlust in utero.

I loved taking photos and I worked on the yearbook and newspaper in high school. Mr. Lee was my influential English teacher who suggested that I could actually make a living at doing this. I was only fifteen years old but from the moment I first heard the word photojournalist I knew that’s what I wanted to do with my life.

I received my undergraduate degree in photojournalism from Syracuse University. I went on to live in Australia and London then returned to California and photographed for newspapers in San Diego for a few years. It was a great way to get thrown into the business. I was shooting every day and learning how to problem solve creatively.

My freelance career started when I got a three-week assignment in Nepal — and I ended up staying more than four years. I just fell in love with the magic of Asia and have since made that home base for much of my life. When I returned to San Francisco I received my graduate degree studying visual anthropology at UC Berkeley based on my years of photographing the Tibetans in the Himalayas.

I don’t think going to school is necessary if you want to be a photographer, as many very successful people are self-taught, but there were a lot of other things I wanted to learn so I made college work for me.